lively
cantata-correspondence between them, each trying to outdo the other.
Following Gasparini came Bononcini, whose contentions with Handel in
England are familiar to all musical readers. He was the most prolific
cantata-writer of all the Italians next to Scarlatti, and dedicated a
volume of them, in 1721, to the King of England. He also published in
Germany a large number which show great knowledge of instrumentation,
according to the musical historians of his time. Antonio Lotti, his
contemporary, wrote several which are particularly noticeable for their
harmony. His pupil Benedetto Marcello, the illustrious psalm-composer,
excelled his master in this form of music. Two of his cantatas, "Il
Timoteo" (after Dryden's ode) and "Cassandra," were very celebrated. He
was of noble family, and is famous even to this day by his masses,
serenades, and sonnets, and by his beautiful poetical and musical
paraphrase of the Psalms, which was translated into English, German, and
Russian. The Baron d'Astorga, whose "Stabat Mater" is famous, wrote many
cantatas, but they do not reach the high standard of that work. Antonio
Caldara, for many years composer to the Emperor at Vienna, published a
volume of them at Venice in 1699. Porpora, who was a rival of Handel in
England as an opera composer, published and dedicated twelve to the
Prince of Wales in 1735 as a mark of gratitude for the support which he
had given him in his disputes with the testy German.[4] After Pergolesi,
who made himself famous by his "Stabat Mater," and published several
cantatas at Rome, and Handel, who wrote many, which were eclipsed by his
operas and oratorios, and are now hardly known, this style of the cantata
languished, and gradually passed into the form of the concert aria, of
which fine examples are to be found in the music of Mozart, Beethoven,
and Mendelssohn. After the death of Pergolesi, Sarti and Paisiello made
an attempt to revive it, and in so doing prepared the way for the cantata
in its beautiful modern form. In the latter's "Guinone Lucina," written
for the churching of Caroline of Austria, Queen of Naples, and in his
"Dafne ed Alceo" and "Retour de Persee" the melody is intermixed with
choruses for the first time.

Thus far the Italian cantatas have alone been considered; but it must not
be supposed that this form of composition was confined to Italy. In
France it was also a favorite style in the early part of the eighteenth
century. Montclair,